‘Greece is colony of Germany and EU’

Decisions taken in Brussels were without the participation of the Greek people, that’s why they are irrelevant. Greece has been basically mortgaged, says Leonidas Chrisanthopoulos, a former Greek ambassador.

An agreement has been reached on a Greek bailout after 17 hours
of marathon talks in Brussels. It took the longest summit session
in a decade for the debt deal between Athens and its European
creditors to reach a conclusion and Greece to be granted up to
€86 billion over three years.

RT:Athens was forced to make a lot of
concessions - was it worth it?

Leonidas Chrisanthopoulos: It was not worth it.
I listened to the statements of the heads of state and not once
did I hear the words “Greek people”. The decisions that were
taken [on Monday] in Brussels were without the participation of
the Greek people. That’s why these decisions are irrelevant,
because even if they are passed by Parliament they can never be
implemented because the Greek people can no longer stand more
measures to those that already exist.

Journalist and filmmaker Aris Chatzistefanou on Greek crisis:
“The winner is of course Brussels, Berlin, and some big
financial institutions. They will try to get the public sector
of Greece, they will try to promote massive privatization, they
will have an aggressive stance against the Greek population.”

RT:It doesn't look like the new deal will
put an end to austerity in Greece. What kind of reaction should
we expect from those who voted ‘No’ in the referendum?

LC: I think you should ask the question about
those who voted ‘Yes’. Even those who voted ‘Yes’ – I spoke with
some this morning – feel humiliated by the fact that Greece has
been mortgaged. The price of Greece is €50 billion and of course
the assets have to stay in Greece. You cannot move beaches and
airports to Luxembourg, so what Mr. Tsipras said is a little bit
irrelevant also. The other dangerous issue that’s happening now
is that both the government and the parliament lack democratic
legitimacy. Discussions are already being held among certain
people for creating a provisional government and a provisional
parliament that will undo what has been done. Though this might
create dangerous situations. Also PM Tsipras is no longer welcome
in Greece and tonight we will have big demonstrations against
this, and I think it’s time that the Greek people show their
strength to the European heads of state in solidarity with other
peoples of Europe who have helped us a lot during these last
weeks.

Aris Chatzistefanou: “I cannot find any other words to describe
what Prime Minister Mr. [Alexis] Tsipras has done last night
other than total betrayal of what the Greek people told him to
do just a week ago at national referendum, where there was a
clear message to vote “No” for any austerity measures. I
believe we also have at the moment a problem of democratic
representation.”

RT:The Greek parliament has to pass
legislation to implement the reforms by Wednesday. What happens
if it doesn't?

LC: It will not, I can guarantee that 100
percent. First of all I don’t think physically they can make it,
but even if they do the laws will not be implemented. It’s too
much, it’s too late and nothing can be done. One of the reasons
why the Germans were saying to the Greeks that ‘we don’t trust
you.’ It’s not that they didn’t trust the Greek government; it’s
that they knew that the Greek people could no longer take these
measures and that it is the death of the Greeks. Nobody will be
able to pay taxes, plus a movement of civil disobedience is being
created in order to protect the Greek people against all these
absurd measures that do not reflect the EU that we entered back
in 1981. Greece is a colony of Germany, not to mention the
European Union.

Aris Chatzistefanou: “They [Greek people] understood there was
no space for negotiation, and that we should follow our own
path even if that means nationalizing banks, default to the
debt or even exiting the eurozone.”

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.